This invention relates to prepositioning wires in an electrical connector for termination and in particular to an electrical connector having an integral wire management system.
When the insulative jacket of a multiple conductor cable is removed in preparing for terminating conductors of the cable in a connector, a bundle of discrete insulated conductors are unveiled. Discrete conductors are not maintained in the desired spaced lateral positions at a predetermined pitch appropriate for insertion into a connector for termination therein. Due in large part to conductors of a round cable being formed in a helical spiral, certain characteristics of which are retained after removal of the insulative jacket, conductors of a cable do not lay flat after having been part of a cable. Prior art connectors employed a wire holder, capable of being slidably received in a passageway, to receive the conductors and maintain the conductors in the desired spaced lateral positions for termination in the connector. Alternatively, conductors were taped to be maintained in a predetermined lateral spacing or the conductors were positioned with the conductors in the cavity and the cable repeatedly moved toward and away from the connector until the conductors were received in the connector for termination.
There is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,530 a connector and wire holder wherein the wire holder is adapted to be received in a connector cavity. The wire holder is adapted to receive discrete wires in a series of staggered wire locating apertures having the same centerline spacing as the pitch of the insulation piercing contacts in the connector. The apertures open to a common side of the wire holder providing conductor receiving openings through which the conductors are received transverse to the axis thereof. The wire holder is sized to be received in a cavity in the connector and slides therein until it abuts a tapering throat. Further advancement of the cable feeds the discrete wires through the wire holder thence into respective blind ended wire receiving passages. When the wires engage the ends of the blind ended passageways, they are positioned for subsequent termination to the contacts.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,355 discloses a similar wire holder structure in a load block that receives in respective parallel bores therein the exposed ends of insulated conductors of a cable. The load block serves to facilitate positioning the conductors in the conductor-receiving position of the cord receiving cavity. The load block has a substantially rectangular outer configuration adapted to be snugly received in the plug cavity. When the load block is in its forward-most position, each bore and thus each conductor therein precisely aligns with one of the terminal receiving slots. With the conductors so held in position, terminals are inserted into the slots whereupon tangs on each terminal pierce through the material of each load block and then through a respective conductor to effect electrical engagement therewith.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,023 discloses a wire positioning member capable of accommodating different numbers of conductors within the same size housing by maintaining the same exterior dimension while varying the distance between facing interior surfaces of sidewalls between which conductors are received. After the cable conductors are positioned within a wire positioning member, the conductors are cut off a predetermined distance forward from the front edge of the wire positioning member. The wire positioning member is then inserted into a wire receiving opening and the conductors terminated.
While the wire holder simplifies the assembly of a connector during termination of a cable to the connector, the wire holder concomitantly increases the number of parts and hence the cost of the unassembled connector.